Requiscat in pace - Michael Jackson

The undisputed 'King of Pop' and one of the largest selling artists in the history of modern pop music Michael Jackson died of cardiac arrest in California today. The death of this star leaves a huge void in the minds of his fans. Michael Jackson was the undoubted leader in fan following whose life was very controversial but never his music. MJ is the winner of 13 Grammy awards and is rumoured to have sold 750 albums across the globe.

Bad, Thriller, Dangerous, Blood on the dance floor, History turned into record breaking albums as did Michael's popularity. With such great hits as 'Bad', 'Smooth Criminal', 'The way you make me feel', 'Beat it', 'Billie Jean', 'The girl is mine', 'Jam', 'Dangerous', 'Heal the world', 'Remember the time', 'Black or white', 'You are not alone', 'Scream', 'Stranger in moscow', 'Earth song', 'Cry', 'Speechless', Michael's knack for churning out lilting melodies and beat heavy songs earned him millions of fans.

My brother and I used to wonder if Michael would ever get back to his old self and give his fans one more best selling album despite the lacklustre sales of 'Invincible' which was released after MJ walked out of Sony over a dispute about publishing rights of his music. The music company which has a separate division for MJ (Epic Records) didn't take this kindly and a lot of bad blood was spilled over in the media. 

Jam Jam

Here Comes The Man

Hot Damn

The Big Boy Stands

Movin' Up A Hand

Makin' Funky Tracks

With My Man

Michael Jackson

Smooth Criminal

That's The Man

Mike's So Relaxed

Mingle Mingle Jingle

In The Jungle

Bum Rushed The Door

3 And 4's In A Bundle

Execute The Plan

First I Cooled Like A Fan

Got With Janet

Then With Guy

Now With Michael

Cause It Ain't Hard To...

That was Heavy D's rap in 'Jam' from the album 'Dangerous'. To call MJ a phenemenon would still be an understatement. His command over rhythm programming and orchestration was second to none in the pop arena. In an age where an artist had to depend on a producer to score the music, MJ belong to a elite group who most often wrote their own music. MJ started off his career with Quincy Jones producing his songs. This trend changed with 'Dangerous' after which he co-produced his albums with Bruce Swedien, Bus Kohen, Ted Riley. R Kelly started working with MJ from History onwards, 'Cry' from 'Invincible' was also a collaboration with R Kelly. 

MJ's song 'Will you be there' featured in the movie 'Free Willy' was counted to be one of the all time best songs to be associated with a movie. MJ's personal life was troubled all through. He converted to Islam in November last year and came to be known as Mikaeel. He was working on an album with Steve Porcaro in Bahrain, he's known Steve since his Thriller days. MJ was on track to perform live from the 13th of July which would have signalled his return to the live stage. The voice has been silenced, we won't get to see any more moon walks. I've seen the legend at it's peak and then being overshadowed by lesser mortals whose music though mediocre in quality was louder than MJ. 

Did MJ not anticipate the changing tastes of new generations? Why couldn't he transform into a trendsetter like he did in the late seventies, eighties and early nineties? Was there ever a performer like MJ who could set the stage on fire? Will there ever be one? I sincerely hoped MJ would come out with just one more album and silence his critics, captivate this generation and cast a spell on them, but alas that's not going to happen anymore. This not even if the album he's been working on is released. With hearfelt prayers I mourn the loss of my musical hero, someone whose string and voice arrangement still gives me goosebumps, whose moonwalk on stage could prompt me to get up and shake despite the fact that I have clay feet. Michael, we'll miss you, our prayers will always be with you. 

Like A Comet

Blazing 'Cross The Evening Sky 

Gone Too Soon

Like A Rainbow

Fading In The Twinkling Of An Eye

Gone Too Soon

Shiny And Sparkly

And Splendidly Bright

Here One Day

Gone One Night

Like The Loss Of Sunlight

On A Cloudy Afternoon

Gone Too Soon

Like A Castle

Built Upon A Sandy Beach

Gone Too Soon

Like A Perfect Flower

That Is Just Beyond Your Reach

Gone Too Soon

Born To Amuse, To Inspire, To Delight

Here One Day

Gone One Night

Like A Sunset

Dying With The Rising Of The Moon

Gone Too Soon

(This song was written for Ryan White, a young victim of AIDS, by Michael Jackson in 1993)

AR Rahman - The Musical Storm - Book

Having picked this book from Crossword on Monday I hoped to be able to read it on the train in the weekend but the subject was too good for me to postpone it till then. This is an unauthorized biography by Kamini Mathai, I've read many of her articles in 'The New Indian Express'. The book does give some insight into the reclusive composer's style and life but there's nothing compelling in this book for a die-hard fan.

One look at the cover and I sincerely hoped it wasn't going to be like 'Superstar' which was Rajini's biography penned by Gayathri. In that book 'petti kadai' was referred to as 'box shop', that's how transliterated it all can be. The tag line given is plain lazy. "The Musical Storm" is nothing but the English translation of "Isai Puyal", that's how AR Rahman is referred to in movie credits and album covers. If my memory serves me right it was KS Ravikumar who coined this title and used it first in the movie "Tenali". Of course this book has it's share of nice little things like Harris Jayaraj for example. Until I did read this book I didn't know that 'Majnu' was offered to AR Rahman who couldn't take it up and referred Harris Jayaraj instead.

Given the fact that there's hardly any information about Rahman that's official, anything that gives us a peek into the composer's life, style, preferences would certainly tickle the curiosity in a music lover. From that perspective this book is surely worth one read. An AR Rahman fan knows most of the things in the book already or can even give some more insight into areas which the book doesn't get into.

Geo's Talkies - Angels and Demons

"Angels & Demons filmed by Ron Howard is roughly based on the book by the same name written by Dan Brown", I'd like to begin writing about this movie by stating this loud and clear. This book was written before 'The Da Vinci Code' while the movie starts off at some point after 'The Da Vinci Code' with references to this movie atleast twice on screen, once when the Priest from Vatican comes to Robert Langdon asking for his help and again when Robert Langdon meets the Camerlango.

The movie starts off with the funeral of a pope with the Vatican in mourning, this wasn't part of the book. After a quick refresher on the processes followed we move to CERN where production of antimatter is in progress under the supervision of Fr.Silvano and Dr.Vittoria. The priest is killed and antimatter is stolen. A priest from the Catholic church meets Robert and solicits his help in helping them find the Illuminati who it is suspected are behind the theft of the antimatter and the threat to four kidnapped cardinals who are also known as the 'preferati'.

To spell out the story completely would be to state too much of plot which is best enjoyed on screen if one hasn't read the book already. The movie uses the books premise as it's foundation and branches out though keeping most of the plotting around the murders in Rome intact. It deviates majorly in the way Robert is brought into the story, it doesn't talk about Camerlango's filial relationship with the deceased pope, the assasin is no longer Arab probably to stay within the realm of political correctness nor is there a hint of an attraction between Robert and Vittoria.

The movie is racy, it hits the ground running. The audience is taken rapidly from one plot to another without any delay without making the screenplay fuzzy. I particularly liked every scene in which the characters referred to 'The Da Vinci Code', they were well conceived. The first shot on screen began with music used in 'The Da Vinci Code', the main motif that was played when Robert finds the rose beneath the Louvre in Paris is one of Hans Zimmer's works and he's brought it back here to improvise it further and take it a step ahead using the choir, stupendous effort. This theme is used in multiple instances in the movie, it takes a different tonal color at some points because of the way it's treated each time.

After Vittoria rips a page off Galileo's Veritas from the Vatican Archives the lead characters set off towards the first church in Rome, the racy music remain a steps ahead of them in the 5/8 time signature, this is an original piece which is superbly written and orchestrated, awesome stuff. I can't state for sure if this movie's music is better than 'The Da Vinci Code' as I strongly count 'The Da Vinci Code' to be one of Hans Zimmer's best scores written for the screen. The way each motif is taken from the previous movie and reworked in this one is too good. A solo violin plays many motifs and the most interesting exposition is when it plays the old motif, lilting stuff. In the credits I saw Joshua Bell's name listed which sort of proved why the solo violin was superior.

Since most of Vatican is either CG or shot on a stage I didn't find too much of brilliance in camera work, all the action scenes were well shot and the night scenes were well lit and shot making it very difficult to spot the CG in them. At a little over 2 hours this movie is faster than the time you actually spend in the hall. I guess this is Ron Howard's way of atoning for 'The Da Vinci Code', I'm kidding. Watch this one, surely worth it and sit back in the hall when the end credits roll, you'll get to hear the full score from the old movie re-orchestrated along with Joshua Bell's violin. If your curiosity is piqued buy the book and read it.